In Mark Twain’s Oliver Twist there was a character named Mr. Bumble. When told that the wife acts under the husband’s direction, Mr. Bumble retorted that the law is a ass. That has been modified to read that the law is an ass.
That is certainly the case in Guyana today. People talk about the rule of law. I remember the case of a man who spent six years in prison on a murder charge. When the matter came up in the High Court it turned out that there was no evidence to charge him in the first place.
I wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions asking how this could be possible, since she had recommended the murder charges in the first instance. I never got a reply. Further, the DPP has never spoken to me again. That was more than six years ago.
Today, the nation is witnessing the very law in action. What they are seeing is the law being skewed to suit the present government in power.
Some people are before the courts on electoral fraud charges. These charges entered the court as private criminal charges. The DPP intervened and the charges became state sponsored.
For six years the matter has been languishing in the courts. Witness after witness has failed to provide evidence of these people committing any fraud but the matter drags on.
Since then, a number of other people have been dragged before the courts on a plethora of charges. Kidackie Amsterdam was charged with a cybercrime. This matter was dismissed.
Tacuma Ogunseye was another. He was charged some three weeks after he allegedly uttered words that were construed as threatening racial harmony in Guyana. No arrest warrant was ever issued but Ogunseye was eventually arrested.
He was locked up, taken to court in shackles and eventually it turned out that there was no evidence to support such a charge. A man was denied his freedom, treated like a common criminal, and eventually freed.
Azruddin Mohamed happened to drive past the home of Prem Narine, the head of Special Branch. His vehicle was stopped; gunshots were fired in his direction; none of the bullets hit him. The police later reported that a gunshot came from the car.
They said that they found a spent shell on the road. It was close to midnight.
The police intercepted Mohamed and escorted him and the vehicle to the Kitty Police Station. The vehicle was searched again.
After some time, a handgun was found under the accelerator pedal. That weapon was said to contain three rounds.
Mohamed and the other two people were detained. They were taken to court in handcuffs and shackles three days later.
None of the men was charged with discharging a firearm. Instead, they were charged with possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition. The law had to be tweaked to exclude a charge of discharging a firearm.
There were other interesting episodes surrounding the incident. The police reported that Mohamed was in a heavily tinted vehicle. This vehicle was in the possession of the police. All could see that the vehicle was not tinted.
The police are the custodians of the law. For them to issue a false statement says something about the law. In court, the prosecutor was forced to say that he never spoke about a heavily tinted vehicle.
All cannot be well within the Guyana Police Force. A Deputy Police Commissioner has been accused of rape. Several government Ministers contend that like any other person this person should have been relieved of his duty at the minimum.
Human Services Minister Vindya Persaud, said, “Once a report has been made, the allegation ought to be thoroughly investigated, and for me, nobody is above the law, and the law is very clear.”
“A person should be held accountable, and by that, I mean there are no two ways about this, and due process should involve rape accused Fizal Karimbaksh going on leave to facilitate the investigation,” she said.
Former Prime Minister Sam Hinds said, “I am not there so I don’t have all the nuances, but certainly as you put it, it is not a good thing; certainly, he and his lawyers have a different story, but I would say it’s awful, it’s an awful thing,”
Gail Teixeira, who once served as Minister of Home Affairs, said, “persons have been sent on leave in the public service for various issues, some serious, some minor.”
Gail Teixeria, now sitting Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, said in an invited comment, “I think that it is very clear; the matter is to be investigated. He should be charged, and the matter should run its course in court like everybody else who is charged with such serious crimes.”
Certainly, the law is not at work in this case. The Deputy Commissioner remains on the job. The Police Commissioner, in the absence of the Police Service Commission, attempted to relieve the rape accused of his duty.
After what was described as a comedy of errors, he withdrew the letter he sent to the Deputy Commissioner.
In all this, the Director of Public Prosecutions has said nothing. There has been no move to apply the law.
The law must be a ass, according to Mr. Bumble, because it is not applicable in this case.
